Florida abortion ban: "These People Aren't Interested in Expertise"

[ShazzieB]

The most consistent posture among those who would restrict abortion is to disregard pregnancy as a medical condition.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/03/florida-abortion-ban-six-weeks.html


Anti-abortion activists stand outside of a health clinic that provides abortions in Clearwater, Florida. Octavio Jones/Reuters

After nearly a year with a 15-week abortion ban in place, Florida appears poised to restrict it even further. In similar bills introduced in the two houses of the state Legislature last week, Republicans proposed banning nearly all abortions performed after six weeks of pregnancy. The GOP supermajorities that control the Florida House and Senate are expected to pass the bills easily, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he will sign the ban into law.

*snip*

Perhaps some legislators in favor of the proposed ban know [that, in a state with a six-week abortion ban, a patient has about a weeklong opening in which to legally terminate a pregnancy]. It is likely that, for a good number of them, the dwindling likelihood that a Florida woman would be able to identify and terminate an unplanned pregnancy before her legal window slams shut is the entire point of the bill, because it will make her more likely to give up and give birth.

But surely, many of the ban’s supporters do not know—or particularly care—when the initial gestational sac of a pregnancy becomes visible on an ultrasound, or that “six weeks” pregnant typically means just four weeks after conception. They may not be aware that “six weeks” pregnant is only two weeks after the first indication of a missed period—in a person with a perfectly regular menstrual cycle.

These are medical details that pertain to pregnancy as a biological condition—a thing that happens to the body, explicable by science and the provenance of doctors—that is intimately entwined with health, pain, and injury. For all its clamoring about “heartbeats” and “fetal pain,” the anti-abortion right has no interest in the biological particulars of pregnancy.

This article makes my blood boil, but it also explains some things, in a weird sort of way. It's obvious to me that the people who make these kinds of laws have no conception (pun intended) and therefore no appreciation or concern for many of the biological realities or pregnancy. Still, it's enraging that such ignorant and uncaring people have the power to do this.

X-posted to General Discussion

[elias7]

1. I am open to potential malpractice for every single patient I see

…if I do not meet standard of care. These lawmakers need to be held accountable for every poor outcome, every morbidity or mortality that occurs as a result of the standard of care not being met by physicians whose hands are tied by such policies. This is pure malpractice at the hands of legislators and they must be held accountable if they have taken it upon themselves to make medical policy and decisions.

[Timeflyer]

2. Great reply--thank you! Can I

borrow you words for letters to the slimy, stupid, greedy, cruel legislators in Florida who are pushing a 6-week abortion ban, HB 7 /SB 300 right now? You said it perfectly.

[Deep State Witch]

3. Notice the Protesters

Three older white men.